U.S. options for a Libya intervention

We are a week into the new U.S. policy seeking for Col. Muammar Qadhafi to leave power in Libya. And Libyans are another week into their bloody civil war, the future trajectory of which remains impossible to predict.

Should Washington’s response to this crisis include the use of military force, and if so, how should it be done?

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A fierce debate has now erupted over the advisability of establishing a no-fly zone — with Defense Secretary Robert Gates the greatest apparent skeptic to date. Rather than focus on this alone, it may be more helpful to consider the full range of options, and the prospects for success of each.

None of these options should be exercised unless and until the League of Arab States officially calls for its adoption, and until at least some members agree to participate in the implementation of the resulting plan.

Support from the U.N. Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the African Union would help as well. But political consensus does not appear magically. So any agreement will require first a clear understanding of what we might actually do.

1) A No-Fly Zone. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have both warned of the difficulty of this option. They have pointed out that it involves not just patrolling the skies but dropping ordnance on air defense facilities. It would, in fact, be an act of war — if a limited and justified one.

Indeed, it might be made more effective if we sought actually to destroy Libyan aircraft on the ground rather than keep them out of the air. But then even more weaponry would need to be used, and more Libyan lives and property lost.

The case for caution about no fly zones is real. But Gates and Mullen have put their emphasis on the wrong warning. In fact, creating such zones is eminently doable. It is not particularly risky, given Libya’s location and geography, as Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), among others, have argued.

But a no-fly zone might not accomplish its goals of fending off Qadhafi’s brutes and foreign mercenaries, since their major weapons do not appear to be airplanes. It is not a bad idea, necessarily. But not greatly promising either.